Lucas Guzmán Rodríguez Cardoso

Chuy, a small town on the Brazilian border, is not the usual starting point for a footballer who ends up wearing the shirt of Club Nacional. Lucas Rodríguez made the journey through a string of Uruguayan clubs before that happened, and by the time Nacional presented him, in a ceremony that included a personal appeal to Diego Polentini for permission to wear his old number, he had already built a career abroad as well as at home.

He began in the Uruguayan second and lower divisions, first with Rentistas and then Atenas, before moving through Boston River and Danubio. The step outside Uruguay came with Carlos Mannucci in Peru, but it was in Mexico, first with Tijuana and then Querétaro, that he had his most productive scoring spells, reaching double figures in goals across those seasons from midfield. He returned to Uruguayan football with Cerro and then Racing de Montevideo, arriving there as a free agent in January 2024 and staying for more than a season.

Nacional confirmed his signing in July 2025, bringing him back to Montevideo's biggest stage after a career built mostly away from it. He wears number 23 and has been used steadily in the league, though goals have not followed him into this spell the way they did in Mexico. He has also featured for Nacional in the Copa Libertadores and the Copa Sudamericana, competitions he had already known from his time at Mannucci and Racing.

Across more than a decade in professional football, he has moved through nine clubs in three countries, a path built less on a single defining moment than on repeated adaptation to new leagues and new teams.